The present invention is directed towards a device for immobilizing a patient's hand while holding the hand on a specially constructed support board in order to facilitate various surgical procedures including endoscopy carpal tunnel release, percutaneous carpal tunnel-plasty and arthoscopy of the hand and wrist.
The human hand is the site of a large number of operative procedures and prior art hand restraints have not been able to fully immobilize the hand during a number of surgical procedures.
A number of restraint devices have been used to support and restrain a patient's hand for intravenous administration and various surgical procedures. U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,744 discloses an immobilizing apparatus including a composite sheet and arm board. The composite sheet includes an adhesive surface on one side and loop fastener on the other side. The arm board includes a fabric hook fastener which engages and holds the hook fasteners of the composite sheet. The patient's hand and/or forearm is secured to the composite sheet by placing the hand and/or forearm on the adhesive surface, the hooked surface of the composite sheet having been previously mounted to the hooked surface of the arm board. A hand belt constructed of fabric loop fasteners, can be used with the restraining device to immobilize the hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,998 discloses a surgical hand restrainer device with a flat mitt shaped base member, a spring finger trap and a slidable rigid thumb loop. The spring finger trap is in the form of a mouse trap type spring biased bar and it does not contain any wrist cross bars or guides for the insertion of instruments for performing any operative procedures inside the hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,401 discloses a paddle shaped base with a strap hand restraint. The wrist of the patient's hand is held by an optional wrist band and the individual fingers and thumb are held by elastic finger bands. The open wound is held open by a plurality of hooks mounted to a ball and link chain. The chains are mounted to the paddle base by inserting a link in one of a number of notches cut along the periphery of the paddle base.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,743 discloses an apparatus for positioning the distal radioulnar joint for medical examination and is constructed with a platform and a pair of upright blocks mounted on the platform in a spaced relationship to each other. Each of the blocks defines a plurality of slots which hold the posts of plexiglass stabilizing blocks. A post located near the forward end of the platform for selective insertion into anyone of a number of positioning holes cut into the platform provides a gripping surface by the subject.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,370,976 discloses a cast type device made of a soft resilient two piece hinged foam cast which closes together to hold the hand and forearm in a fixed position and is held together by straps.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,480 discloses a splint for immobilizing an patient's arm consisting of a three sided plastic foam support which is secured to the patient's arm with a series of VELCRO.RTM. straps.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,025,801; 4,909,264; 4,672,955; 4,453,933; 3,901,227; 3,476,108; 3,762,401; and 2,266,230, each disclose devices which temporarily restrain or support the hand and/or forearm using straps or bands to secure the hand for surgery or intravenous therapy. The use of straps is disadvantageous in that the straps are difficult to secure and also limit accessibility of the patient's hand and/or forearm.